PC upgrades...advice please

Dooom

ok.....early next year after xmas i plan to upgrade my pc. at the moment i have a AMD Duron 1.1ghz, 256sdram, geforce 3 ti500 128mb, 80gig HD and a crap sound card. I plan to get stuff that'll last me more than a coupla months.

here's my intended set up:
ASUS A7N8X mobo(its got the nForce 2 chip!!)
AMD Athlon XP (thoroughbred) 2000+ or 2200+
will i be able to keep my ram or should i change it? i'd plan to add another 128 onto it anyway.
Geforce 4 ti4600 128mb (or depends if what the grfx card story is next year)
Creative Sound Blaster something or another
keep my HD and my optical mouse and keyboard.

can anyone please give me some advice on this?
thanks
ps any way i can overclock my current pc?

BabyEater

You will have to get DDR Ram i recommend two sticks so you get the benefit of dual ddr on your nforce. Couldn't make a decision on the grafix card until you get it as there is activity there with the new geforceFx .
If you are able to go into the BIOS and up the fsb you can overclock you could also try soft fsb if you can't use the bios.

Dooom

hmmmm ok then. what sort of power supply would i need for those? and ive heard rumors the the AMD XP's are notorious for overheating, so does the processor come with a fan/heatsink or would i have to buy one?

BabyEater

A good 300watt would do e.g. Antec or the like otherwise 350 or so. The CPU comes with a heatsink and fan if you buy a boxed version otherwise you have to buy your own

Dooom

ok. i'll be getting these parts from komplett so what's the chances the processor'll be boxed? also the motherboard says it has onboard/intergrated 5.1 sound decoder, i assume that means that i wont need to go and buy a sound card aswell?
and another stupid question, will i have to go and get a modem or is that in the mobo?
ps thanks for all the help

Gerry

If the processor is boxed, it will say so. It will also state "this processor comes with a heatsink and fan".
The only boxed athlon currently on komplett is the 2100+ which is a palomino, not the newer thoroughbred.

So if getting any other chip, you will need to buy a heatsink+fan combination.

Get one which is rated for your chip, and avoid coolermaster ( at least the cheapo ones on komplett)

I recommend the globalwin cdk64 as a nice cheap hsf which does the job extremely well. I've seen it in use on a 1600+ , it kept that very cool indeed, and is rated for up to a 2600+. Tis only €24.51.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=26880&t=1622&l=3&AvdID=1&CatID=28&GrpID=5&s=pl

You do not need a sound card, since that is indeed built into the motherboard, a nice thing to buy would be 5.1 speakers to go with the onboard 5.1 sound.

You will need to buy a separate modem, if it was built into the mobo ( very rare ), the spec sheet for it would say so.

Its not really worth trying to overclock your current machine, ( unless it is a newer "morgan" duron which has the same core as the athlon xp but less cache) You might be able to get 1.3 ghz out of it though if you try.

Dooom

oh....so if i want the 2400+, i'll have to get a heatsink aswell...hmm. obviously if i get the one you recommended i wont have to get a heatsink aswell? just the fan? is there anything else in the boxed processors that i'll need to get or is it just the fan/heatsink that i'll be missing out on?

Dr. Dre

by Aragorn
and ive heard rumors the the AMD XP's are notorious for overheating,

Not true.
It was their predecessors the Athlons, the XP's actually run cooler.

As far as the PC spec thing goes, it's a bit pointless deciding on a spec now, just decide when you are actually about to buy it, even a couple of months is enough time for something new to come along and revolutionise our computer experience !!

PS: a boxed processor comes with the heatsink and fan, you wont need anything else.

Gerry

Sorry, I thought I made it clear that a boxed processor includes heatsink and fan.

I wasn't recommending the 2100+, I was just pointing out that it is the only boxed amd chip that komplett have at the moment. You should go for one of the thoroughbreds ( 2200+ or 2400+ ) and the heatsink+fan I recommended is good value. As in, the globalwin cdk64 includes both the heatsink ( large finned piece of aluminium ( and copper in this case ) which draws heat from the chip and it also includes the fan needed to cool the heatsink.

Dooom

ok cheer gerry, i'll go for that then. now all i need to do is sell this motherboard and processor (check out my post in the for sale section)...please?